Board games and their many variants have existed since ancient times. One particular board game which has obtained considerable recognition and play is the game of Checkers or Draughts. The game of Checkers is played on a large grid, or checkerboard, of eight rows and eight columns that define sixty-four squares, each adjacent square alternating in color. All play is conducted upon a single color of the checkerboard, and each player begins play with twelve game pieces of his own color. The players sit on opposite sides of the checkerboard and one of the players moves first. Thereafter, the players make alternating moves.
When it is time to make a move, the player may move one of his game pieces one space in a diagonally forward direction provided that space is vacant. Alternatively, the player may capture an opposing player's game piece occupying a diagonally forward space if the next diagonal space beyond the piece to be captured is vacant. To do so, the player jumps over the piece to be captured to the vacant square, and then removes from the checkerboard the piece jumped.
If a jumping piece lands in a square from which a further jump can take place, the piece must continue jumping in the same turn to capture the additional piece. Thus, if a player is able to capture an opponent's piece he must do so and forgo making a non-capturing move. If, however, several jumps are possible, the player may chose which piece to capture.
At the start of the game, all of the pieces on the board are single pieces, and such a piece can only move in a diagonally forward direction. The row of spaces nearest each player is called the King's row. When an opponent's piece lands in a space along this row, the piece is crowned (i.e., an additional piece is stacked upon the single piece) and thus becomes a King. A King has the same ability to move and capture as a single piece, and, in addition, may move and capture in a diagonally backwards direction as well. If a single piece reaches the King's row by jumping an opponent's piece, the jumping piece is crowned, but cannot continue jumping in that same turn.
The object of the game of Checkers is to reach a point in the game where your opponent is unable to move any of his pieces. While this is often accomplished by capturing all twelve of the opponent's pieces, it may also be done by blocking the further movement of all pieces. Thus, the first player unable to move a piece loses the game.
When two players have had sufficient experience playing the game of Checkers, the game may become a very time-consuming process to play. In addition, the game becomes a defensive struggle in that a player may be unwilling to move pieces off his King's row. Often, after a great deal of time, neither player is capable of winning the game, and the game ends in a draw.
Variations on the game of checkers have been tried using numbered spaces to penalize or reward a player who lands on one of those spaces. Games shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,474,504 and 191,169 show two such games. These games as in regular checkers however have the disadvantage of encouraging defensive play by maintaining defensive tile in the spaces closest to each player's King's row. This tends to slow the game and make less interesting.